Cut-off kinks

We answer the question: If a vacuum sector Hamiltonian is regularized by an energy cutoff, how is the one-kink sector Hamiltonian regularized? We find that it is not regularized by an energy cutoff, indeed normal modes of all energies are present in the kink Hamiltonian, but rather the decomposition of the field into normal mode operators yields coefficients which lie on a constrained surface that forces them to become small for energies above the cutoff. This explains the old observation that an energy cutoff of the kink Hamiltonian leads to an incorrect one-loop kink mass. To arrive at our conclusion, we impose that the regularized kink sector Hamiltonian is unitarily equivalent to the regularized vacuum sector Hamiltonian. This condition implies that the two regularized Hamiltonians have the same spectrum and so guarantees that the kink Hamiltonian yields the correct kink mass.

Automated summary

We investigate the regularization of the one-kink sector Hamiltonian and find that it is not regularized by an energy cutoff. Instead, the field decomposition into normal mode operators yields coefficients constrained to become small for energies above the cutoff. This explains the incorrect one-loop kink mass observed when applying an energy cutoff to the kink Hamiltonian. To resolve this, we impose the condition that the regularized kink sector Hamiltonian is unitarily equivalent to the regularized vacuum sector Hamiltonian, guaranteeing the correct kink mass.